A lot of groups and individuals put out piles of misrepresented statistics and bogus research. Few can match Paul Cameron’s audacity, but from time to time we run across something that surely must put a smile on Cameron’s lips. One such email blast reached my inbox yesterday, and it was so good I thought it might be time to inaugurate a brand new award.

And so I’m announcing the Cameronesque Award, given for the individual or group who engages in the most egregious manipulation, misuse, or misrepresentation of research or statistics that would make Paul Cameron proud.

For the first winner of this brand new award, I chose the Christian Defense Coalition. Headed by Rev. Pat Mahoney, the Christian Defense Coalition was formed to advocate on behalf of Terri Shiavo’s parents, and they’ve been involved with conservative Christian politics ever since. Yesterday, they put out a blaring press release claiming that the “shootings in Colorado highlight the fact that Christians and churches are the overwhelming target of hate crimes in America.”

Did you get that? Christians and churches are the “overwhelming target” of hate crimes in America. Not blacks, not gays, not Jews. Christians.

For example, between 1997 and 2007 there were 3,500 acts of either arson, attempted arson, bombings and suspicious fires at churches according to the National Coalition for Burned Churches.

The group also reports that 600 churches were subjected to arson alone between 2000 and 2006.

The National Burned Churches Coalition was founded in 1997 in the wake of several church fires that occurred in the South. Since then, they’ve provided valuable aid and advice to churches recovering from arson, bombing or vandalism, and they do research for crime prevention. The NBCC does genuinely good work.

But not all of the acts that the NBCC tracks were hate crimes. According to their web site, some of these churches are damaged or vandalized as part of common criminal activity, and some are targeted by teens “just for the thrill of it.”

Don’t get me wrong. The NBCC is filling a legitimate need. But not all of the churches they assist were victims of hate crimes. And the NBCC doesn’t get involved with acts of hate directed at other groups. That simply is not their mission, which means it’s not possible to put their data into perspective against what other groups experience.

So who does track hate crimes nationwide against all legally-specified categories? Well, the FBI of course. And for 2006, here is what they reported:

Hate Crime Incidents, 2006

Race

4,737

52%

Anti-White

1,008

Anti-Black

3,136

Anti-Indian/Alaskan Native

72

Anti-Asian/Pacific Islander

230

Multiple Groups/Other

291

Religion

1,597

18%

Anti-Jewish

1,027

Anti-Catholic

81

Anti-Protestant

62

Anti-Islamic

191

Anti-Other

140

Multiple groups

88

Anti-Atheist/Agnostic

8

Sexual Orientation

1,415

16%

Anti-Male Homosexual

881

Anti-Female Homosexual

192

Anti-Homosexual

293

Anti-Heterosexual

28

Anti-Bisexual

21

Ethnicity

1,233

14%

Anti-Hispanic

770

Other

483

Disability

94

1%

TOTAL

9,076

100%*

Percentages don’t add to
100% due to rounding errors.

Now the Christian Defense Coalition ignored the FBI data altogether. Using the NBCC data, they complained:

Most would believe that the groups or facilities most likely to be targets of hate crimes are persons of color, gays, Muslims or abortion clinics. The reason for that is the national press, media, elected officials and special interest groups focus, dramatize and over report when those groups and facilities are subjected to violent acts.

But let’s look at the FBI’s data, which is the only source for statistics of hate crimes against all of these groups (except abortion clinics). If you add the anti-Protestant and anti-Catholic reports of hate crime incidents, you’ll find that there were 143 hate crimes reported against Christian groups or individuals.

That’s a lower figure than for every other group that the Christian Defense Coalition mentions. That figure is minuscule compared to the 3,136 anti-Black hate crime incidents. It’s even blown away by the 1,008 anti-White hate crime incidents. It’s also tiny compared to the 1,366 combined anti-homosexual hate crime incidents and the 1,027 anti-Jewish hate crime incidents. It’s even lower than the 191 anti-Muslim hate crime incidents. In fact, even Asians and Pacific Islanders experience more hate crime incidents that Christians — and Christians make up the majority of the U.S. population!

A lot of people are lining up to exploit the Colorado shootings to advance their agenda. Monday, we cited the Family “Research” Council’s Tony Perkin’s craven attack on the “secular media.” Today we have the Christian Defense Coalition trying to dress their claims with meaningless statistics. I have a feeling that somewhere in Colorado Springs, Cameron is smiling.

Funny how the conservative/Republican/right-wing/etc. types can be all up-in-arms about how prosecuting hate-crimes is such a bad, unfair, liberal-bleeding-heart thing to do, UNLESS they are (or can position themselves as) the target of such hate-crimes.

Then again, it’s alright for them to be anti-gay, unless you’re a Republican vice president with a lesbian daughter. Or against stem cell research, unless you’re a former Republican president’s wife whose husband suffered Alzheimer’s. Or tough-on-drugs, unless you’re a right-wing talk radio giant who had a little run-in with a pain killer addiction. Or be all for family values, except when you’re on your third marriage. And so on.

There’s an old saying that “a liberal is a conservative who’s never been mugged.” Maybe a conservative is just a liberal who hasn’t had one of life’s little problems disrupt their routine yet.

Actually, cooner, the really funny thing is how liberal-progressive/Democrat/left-wing/etc. types — like yourself — enjoy turning stories like this one into something they’re not in order to criticize the ideological opposition for positions they don’t hold.

The Christian Defense Coalition media advisory at Christian Newswire says nothing whatsoever about the prosecution of hate crimes, nor does it deal with the controversies surrounding hate crimes laws.

There certainly are reactionary religious types that are hypocritical when it comes to hate crimes and other acts of bigotry, but there isn’t anything in the Coalition’s statement to show that they are such types.

As for the conservative position on hate crimes, it isn’t that such crimes should not be prosecuted; it is that certain motives for a crime shouldn’t be elevated above others as deserving of greater punishment.

Hate Crimes legislation is designed to prosecute someone using one crime (arson, theft, murder) to commit another crime (assault, harassment, intimidation) against the victim, and or the group the victim belongs to. It has nothing whatsoever to do with criminalizing thought or motivation.

UCC churches are being targeted across for vandalism across the country. My church was vandalized, as was a local liberal Catholic Church. These churches were not vandalized by anti-Christian atheist they were vandalized by radical fundamentalists who are angry about the liberal and progressive positions (gay affirming, anti-war, anti-greed) of progressive congregations.

As far as the black church burnings in the south, again these crimes were not committed by people who hate Christianity or religion. They are committed by people who claim TO BE Christians, but who hold very unchristian views on treating our neighbors (ALL our neighbors, black, jewish, muslim, gay, immigrant, poor, etc.) as ourselves.

So even their whining about being victims is a red herring. They are usually victims of their own “Christian” brothers and sisters.

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